The African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Food Systems (formerly ACoE in Food Security) – ARUA-SFS – is one of 13 ARUA Centres of Excellence (CoEs). These CoEs form a network of universities from around the world, all undertaking collaborative research in priority thematic areas to find solutions to the development problems of Africa. ARUA-SFS was established in 2018 through a partnership between the host institution – University of Pretoria – and collaborating partner institutions – University of Ghana and University of Nairobi. ARUA-SFS aims to connect Africa’s talented researchers with each other and the global academic community to collaboratively identify solutions to the food systems challenges of our time as articulated in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want.

The vision of ARUA-SFS is to:

“Harness partnerships in research and innovation to drive agricultural and food systems transformation to ensure sustainable food and nutrition security in Africa.”

ARUA-SFS is hosted at Future Africa (FA) at the University of Pretoria as part of the FA Sustainable Food Systems Research Chair (FA-SFS). The Centre aligns its approach with Future Africa’s understanding of transformative research – namely, that transformative research should address Africa’s complex challenges by adopting an integrative (interdisciplinary), engaged (transdisciplinary), and holistic (systems-focused) approach.

Future Africa brings together scientists from a range of disciplines to work collaboratively on issues facing the continent and the globe in cutting-edge facilities. It advocates for research that contributes concrete solutions to complex, real-world problems and that informs and supports processes of profound social change towards global sustainability. This includes sustainable food systems as one of Future Africa’s four focus areas.

Launched in January 2022, the FA-SFS supports Future Africa’s overarching mission of harnessing and unleashing the transformative potential of African sciences to shape thriving societies on the continent within a global framework. Aligned with Future Africa’s commitment to collaborative and transformative research, FA-SFS is guided by several key objectives. These include the establishment and enhancement of research partnerships, the pursuit of cutting-edge transdisciplinary research aimed at addressing complex societal challenges and improving food systems, active contributions to the capacity-building and mentorship of early-career researchers, the initiation of an FA dialogue series focused on sustainable food systems, and the promotion of engagement in diverse multi-stakeholder platforms for sharing research findings and influencing evidence-based policy development and advocacy. Through these objectives, FA-SFS endeavours to play a vital role in advancing research, fostering collaboration, and affecting positive change in the realm of sustainable food systems.

Visit the ARUA-SFS website